Children look through windows at a playground as volunteers from the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co remove ice and snow and level dirt in the ground in Tamura, Fukushima prefecture, Japan on April 1.孩童四月一日在日本福島縣田村市望向其窗外的遊樂場，而掌管遭海嘯侵襲的福島第一核電廠的東京電力公司志工們，則是剷除遊樂場的冰雪並平整髒汙。

Photo: Reuters照片：路透

Health complications stemming from Japan’s 2011 tsunami have killed more people in one Japanese region than the disaster itself, the local authority said.

Data compiled by officials and police show that almost three years after the huge waves smashed ashore, 1,656 people living in Fukushima prefecture have died from stress and other illnesses related to the disaster, compared with 1,607 who were killed in the initial calamity.

Along with the prefectures of Miyagi and Iwate, Fukushima was one of the worst hit parts of Japan when a huge 9.0 undersea earthquake sent a wall of water barreling into the coast.

The waves swept more than 18,000 people to their deaths across the country, and destroyed entire communities.

Fukushima was also hit with the resulting nuclear disaster after cooling systems at the Daiichi nuclear plant were knocked out, sending reactors into meltdown and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.

Almost three years on, many people remain displaced, whether because their homes around the power plant have not been declared safe or because rebuilding along the coast has been slow.